Politics and Culture

October 31, 2013

"You show that it is possible to be of the Jewish faith without being completely disgusting." — Standup comedian Sebastian Thoen introducing Elie Semoun on Canal Plus TV.

When a leading Jewish organization complained about "a dangerous trivialization of anti-Semitism," the President of the TV channel responded by saying that the Jewish community had "no sense of humor."

Is it just the radicals, the Islamists, who believe in the death penalty for gays, or the systematic subjugation of women? Or are these mainstream Muslim beliefs? Norwegian Islamic Leader Fahad Qureshi is quite clear:

Every now and then, every time we have a conference, every time we invite a speaker, [the media] always comes with the same accusations: This speaker supports the death penalty for homosexuals, this speaker supports the death penalty for this crime or that crime, that he is homophobic, that he subjugates women... It's the same old stuff coming all of the time.

We always try to tell them... I always try to tell them that it is not that speaker that we are inviting who has these "extreme radical views," as you say. These are general views that every Muslim actually has. Every Muslim believes in these things. Just because they are not telling you about it, or just because they are not out there in the media, doesn't mean that they don't believe in them.

I will ask you, everyone in the room: How many of you are normal Muslims – not extremists, not radical – just normal Sunni Muslims? Please, raise your hands. Everybody, with the grace of God. Okay, take down your hands.

How many of you agree that men and women should sit separately? Please raise your hands. Everyone agrees, brothers as well as sisters. So it's not just these "radical" sheiks, then?

Next question: How many of you agree that the punishments described in the Koran and the Sunna – whether it is death, whether it is stoning for adultery, whatever it is... If it is from Allah and His Messenger, that is the best punishment ever possible for humankind, and that is what we should apply in the world. Who agrees with that?

Allah Akbar. Are you all radical extremists? So all of you are saying that you are common Muslims, you all go to different mosques in Norway... Or are you a specific sect, like the Islam Net sect, or anything like that? Are you like that? No. Are you like that? Please raise your hand if you are like that extreme Islam, that sect, or anything like that? No one, Allah Akbar.

How many of you go to the normal Sunni mosques in Norway? Please raise your hands. Allah Akbar. What are the politicians going to say now? What is the media going to say now? That we are all extremists? That we are all radicals? That we all need to be deported from this country?

The social transformations underway are aided by the fact the country is one of the demographically youngest in the world, with 68 per cent of Afghans under age 25, according to the UN. These youth have grown up in the Facebook generation. They tweet, blog and stay connected to their cousins in Toronto, Berlin, or London, exposed to the web of Afghan diaspora that has fanned out across the world. They watch shows such as Afghan Star, a homegrown version of the televised pop talent competitions in vogue around the world. It is broadcast on Tolo TV, one of dozens of independent media stations that have emerged in a thriving, diverse media sector.

At the same time, Afghans have been reconnecting to the parts of their past they are most proud of. Hereditary classical musicians, chased out of their ancient haunt of the Karabat neighbourhood of Kabul by the Taliban, have returned and are training young apprentices in the enchanting sounds of the rubab, sarod and tabla. The breathtaking Babur's Garden in Kabul, home of the tomb of the founder of the Mughal empire, has been beautifully and faithfully restored, a green oasis where families picnic, young couples flirt and children race around the rose bushes.

It is the strides made by women that are most compelling. Women took the guarantees of their Constitution's Article 22, that there shall be no discrimination on the basis of sex, and the promises of the international community at their word, seizing the new opportunities for rights and freedoms. Millions of girls are back in the classrooms the Taliban shut them out of. There are more female parliamentarians in Afghanistan than in Canada or the United States. Shelters have opened across the country and a law has been passed criminalizing violence against women. Women are thriving in business, running small handicraft enterprises to large companies. They are journalists, soap opera stars, soccer players and boxers.

These dramatic gains occurred in a short time, and the degree of change is incomparable to similar changes that took generations to evolve in our own society. That is due to the courage and hard work of Afghan civil society and its women's movements and to the substantial support of the international community over this past decade. But these gains are vulnerable because the international community, led by the United States, is poised to disengage from Afghanistan, with the Taliban still leering from the shadows.

This disengagement is in large part prompted by the skewed narrative of Afghanistan prevalent in the West, which has led to chronic Afghanistan fatigue among publics in the countries financing Afghanistan's rescue from the grips of Taliban violence. It's a narrative that portrays intervention in Afghanistan as a failure, when it is in fact a success story. It has been easier to show yet another bomb blast by insurgents than to tell the more nuanced story of a country coming back from the edge.

Clarnico, on Carpenter’s Road, was the largest sweet manufacturer in the country and employed 1,500 people.

Ideally situated for deliveries of sugar on the banks of the River Lee navigation channel, it was famous for mint creams as well as producing liquorice Chinese Pigtails, coconut-based Toasted Haddocks and the eclectically-named Pig’s Head & Carrots and Dolly’s Musical Bottles.

Founded in 1872 as Clarke, Nickolls & Coombs, its main product was candied peel though it soon diversified into making marmalade, jam and then sweets. By the 1900s the company had its own fire brigade, ambulance, a brass band that toured abroad and a 100-strong choral society.

Most of it was cleared for the Olympic Park, but it was already in a sorry state and the company, taken over by Trebor in 1969, had long since moved out.

Here's a 1921 aerial view of the works. The open ground towards the top is now the Olympic Park. Clarnico is centre right. Few of those terraced houses to the left survived the blitz.

I've no idea who was responsible for sticking the photo up there, but it's a nice reminder - in the spirit of last year's The Walls Have Ears mural - of the area's industrial heritage.

They became an in-demand icon of the delights of South Korea after they were given out to workers at the Kaesong Industrial Complex. After the Complex closed down in April, North Korea started producing its own inferior copies. And now:

North Korean authorities are spreading rumors that South Korean-made Choco Pies are harmful to the body, an inside source has reported.

The rumor surfaced as soon demand grew for the popular chocolate treat, and was initiated in order to "avoid ideological unrest," the source from Yangkang Province told Daily NK on the 28th.

“Even though the Kaseong Industrial Complex has started up again, the only Choco Pies in the markets are North Korean imitations. Traders baulk at selling the South Korean kind, as the rumor has spread that, ‘South Korean authorities have added weird substances,’” the source conveyed.

Security agents tasked with cracking down on the markets are reportedly saying, “The South Chosun puppets intend to shake our national defense. They are spying and scheming,” and “If the products from the ‘neighborhood downstairs’ are enjoyed unconditionally, the ideology of the people could wither at any moment.”

“These kinds of rumors and market crackdowns have resulted in the disappearance of the once-abundant South Korean Choco Pies,” explained the source.

Rumors have also emerged regarding South Korea’s psychological warfare tactic of sending mass leaflets into the North; “They have planted bombs, so do not touch the leaflets. You have to use a stick (to move them),” and “They have cancer causing agents, so don’t go right up to them or your body will suffer.”

North Korean citizens have similarly been warned against foreign tourists from places like China, whose food “contains material that is harmful to our style of socialism.”

The most recent leaflets to have been sent over concern the illicit sexual activities of Ri Sol-ju, Kim Jong-un's fragrant young wife. Much to the North's fury. The mention of Chinese food, meanwhile, refers back very possibly to the recently highlighted case of Chinese tourists being branded as boorish and insensitive for throwing sweets out of tour bus windows to North Korean children on the street.

The theme of contamination from impure foreign sources is, of course, more usually associated with the far right: another sign of the true nature of the Kim dynastic regime, aka the Baekdu bloodline. But fewer and fewer people are fooled:

“At first the authorities target the more naive portion of the population. But in border areas and the like, the traders are sensitive to the government and they don’t believe such groundless rumors. The people have heard of foreign products and food before, and can remember eating it themselves. The authorities are spreading lies but the number of people falling for it is decreasing.”